Zynga Brings Back Offers And Begins Testing New "Engagement Ads"

This evening Mark Pincus, the CEO of Zynga, announced on his blog that Zynga would begin phasing back in offers after temporarily shutting them down due to the whole “ScamVille” controversy. The primary source of controversy was IQ Quiz advertisements which we’ve covered extensively on AllFacebook over the past year. While sources vary on how large of a revenue stream offers were, sources stated that accounted for upwards of 33 percent of Zynga’s revenue. So what does this mean for Zynga? Most obvious is the immediate increase in the company’s bottom line. However it also means that those users “who don’t have access to online payment methods” will now be able to generate farm cash among other things. Zynga will begin phasing in new offers, with the first eight coming from “Netflix, Discover Card, Blockbuster, HSBC Direct, Gamefly, Book of the Month Club, SnapFish and The New York Times”.

Also of interest in Mark’s blog post was information about new advertising solutions the company will be testing with “brand engagement ads”. According to Mark, “PetVille will test ads from Visa, Sprint, xBox, Timberland, MTV, TV Land, CW and HTC. This type of brand engagement will allow users to gain currency in a fast and easy way.” As we understand it, users will be rewarded with virtual currency for interacting with branded advertisements, something that could theoretically provide serious competition to Facebook’s popular “engagement ads”.